DAUGHTER

What inspired me to write this peice is that so many people in the world don't understand that there is more than one kind of abuse. When you scream and yell at your kids, it hurts. Pain runs so so deep. When you leave people and neglect them, it feels like you are resenting them and like you don't love them. I hope that everyone who reads this will understand how much it can hurt. This story is fictional, but that doesn't mean that situations like these don't happen every day.

"Why do you do this to me?!?!" I shouted through short gasps of breath. The tears were like fire as they rolled down my face leaving little blazing trails. I tried to hold them back because I didn't want her to have the satisfaction of seeing me like this. "I didn't do this to you! I took you away from your fatherso that I wouldn't have to see and hear you cry out in pain from all the bruises and welts he would leave on you!!!" Her words stung, they stung like a wasp's sting in the summer. By now, I couldn't hold back any of the rage or tears or anything else I was holding back from her. "So you are telling me that you took me away from him to PROTECT me?!?!" I screamed at her. "Yes! I was tired of his hurtful words and actions twards everyone, especially you!!" she yelled back. I had just noticed that she was crying to. "Some protection that was! Now I am stuck here with you!! Just because you don't hit me and beat me doesn't mean that you aren't abusing me!!" "How could I abuse you!?!? You are my DAUGHTER, my own kid! I could never hurt you!!" she answered through sobs. "You yell and scream and leave me alone for days, even weeks at a time!! Now that I think about it, You aren't around enough to abuse me, you just neglect me!!" By then I didn't care how many people heard me. I was tired of hidding all this from everyone. I didn't have any friends because I was to scared of people to talk, let alone hang out. "I don't negelect you! I never have and never could neglect you or abuse you!! You are my daughter and I love you." I could tell that even as she said them, she was trying to convince herself it was true. "Mom, I am 11! You can't leave me home alone that long!! If you don't stop I will leave. I would be so happy to do that, just so I would never ever have to see your face again!!" After I said that, I saw the pain I had caused her. That was when I knew I had won because she ran away in muffled sobs. Seeing that pain, feeling the victory wash over me, you would think that I would have felt great, but I didn't. I felt regret, saddness, and pain. I couldn't even believe that I was feeling that of all things! All I could think was "Why? Why would you hurt someone like that, especially someone you were supposed to love? Why?!?!" I felt like screaming, I felt like dieing, actually I felt like apologizing. I don't know why that came into my head, but I knew that I had to say that I was sorry because if I didn't I could never try to pick up the shattered peices of our relationship and my life.

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